# US 2014/0192775 A1 · Methods and apparatus for inter-enb carrier aggregation

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- Number: US 2014/0192775 A1
- Document ID: US20140192775A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 14/149,643
- Filed: 2014-01-07
- Published: 2014-07-10
- Earliest claimed: 2013-01-07
- Assignees: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Ying Li; Soeng-Hun Kim; Boon Loong Ng; Young-Han Nam; Jianzhong Zhang; Aris Papasakellariou
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140192775A1

## CPC

- H04W 16/26: Cell enhancers {or enhancement}, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
- H04W 36/249: {according to timing information}
- H04W 74/006: {in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal}
- H04W 76/15: Setup of multiple wireless link connections
- H04L 5/00: Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
- H04L 5/001: {the frequencies being arranged in component carriers}
- H04L 5/0055: {Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK (for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861)}
- H04W 36/00692: {using simultaneous multiple data streams, e.g. cooperative multipoint [CoMP], carrier aggregation [CA] or multiple input multiple output [MIMO] (allocation of physical resources in CoMP or in CA H04L5/0035)}
- H04W 74/08: Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA (hybrid access H04W74/02)
- H04W 76/18: Management of setup rejection or failure
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

A method and apparatus for connecting to a secondary enhanced NodeB. A transceiver configured to receive a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message from a Master enhanced NodeB (MeNB). The RRC message comprises a dedicated random access resources configuration for the UE to perform random access to a cell associated with a Secondary enhanced NodeB (SeNB) for a purpose of an addition of the SeNB, and an identification of the cell to which the random access is to be performed. Responsive to receiving the RRC message, command the Media Access Control (MAC) to trigger the random access for the addition of the SeNB to the cell with the identification indicated in the RRC message with the random access resources indicated in the RRC message. The MeNB is an eNB which the UE connects to initially and which acts as mobility anchor.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A User Equipment (UE), the UE comprising:
a transceiver configured to receive a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message from a Master enhanced NodeB (MeNB),
wherein the RRC message comprises a dedicated random access resources configuration for the UE to perform random access to a cell associated with a Secondary enhanced NodeB (SeNB) for a purpose of an addition of the SeNB, and an identification of the cell to which the random access is to be performed;
a controller, coupled to the transceiver, configured to:
responsive to receiving the RRC message, command the Media Access Control (MAC) to trigger the random access for the addition of the SeNB to the cell with the identification indicated in the RRC message with the random access resources indicated in the RRC message;
wherein the MeNB is an eNB which the UE connects to initially and which acts as mobility anchor,
wherein the SeNB is an eNB providing additional radio resources for the UE, which is not the Master eNB,
wherein the dedicated random access resource configuration includes random access preamble and physical random access channel transmission occasion.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1, wherein the dedicated random access resource configuration transmitted from the MeNB is sent by at least one of the SeNB and a network node.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1, wherein the RRC message comprises the identification of the cell to which the random access is to be performed, the controller further configured to:
responsive to receiving the RRC message, configure lower layers to add the cell, prior to performing the random access.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The UE of claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to configure the lower layers to consider the added cell to be in activated state, prior to performing the random access.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1, wherein the cell to which the random access is to be performed can be a primary cell (PCell) associated with the SeNB.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1, the controller further configured to at least one of:
responsive to a successful random access to the cell and the addition of the SeNB, signal the success to the MeNB;
responsive to a failure of the random access to the cell, signal the failure to the MeNB;
responsive to the event of the failed random access, determine if the cell to which the random access is performed is previously added; and
responsive to the cell being previously added, release the cell.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify the one or more cells associated with the MeNB and the one or more cells associated with the SeNB based on at least one of an indication of an eNB that a cell is associated with, a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) of each cell, and a timing advance group (TAG) identification of each cell.

### Claim 8

A method for connecting to a secondary enhanced NodeB, the UE comprising:
receiving a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message from a Master enhanced NodeB (MeNB),
wherein the RRC message comprises a dedicated random access resources configuration for the UE to perform random access to a cell associated with the Secondary enhanced NodeB (SeNB) for a purpose of an addition of the SeNB, and an identification of the cell to which the random access is to be performed;
commanding the Media Access Control (MAC) to trigger the random access for the addition of the SeNB to the cell with the identification indicated in the RRC message with the random access resources indicated in the RRC message in response to receiving the RRC message;
wherein the MeNB is an eNB which the UE connects to initially and which acts as mobility anchor,
wherein the SeNB is an eNB providing additional radio resources for the UE, which is not the Master eNB,
wherein the dedicated random access resource configuration includes random access preamble and physical random access channel transmission occasion.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the dedicated random access resource configuration transmitted from the MeNB is sent by at least one of the SeNB and a network node.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the RRC message comprises the identification of the cell to which the random access is to be performed, further comprising:
prior to performing the random access, configuring lower layers to add the cell in response to receiving the RRC message.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
prior to performing the random access, configuring the lower layers to consider the added cell to be in an activated state.

### Claim 12 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the cell to which the random access is to be performed can be a primary cell (PCell) associated with the SeNB.

### Claim 13 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, further comprising:
responsive to a successful random access to the cell and the addition of the SeNB, signaling the success to the MeNB;
responsive to a failure of the random access to the cell, signaling the failure to the MeNB, and
responsive, to the event of the failed random access, determining if the cell to which the random access is performed is previously added; and
responsive to the cell being previously added, releasing the cell.

### Claim 14 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, further comprising:
identifying the one or more cells associated with the MeNB and the one or more cells associated with the SeNB based on at least one of an indication of an eNB that a cell is associated with, a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) of each cell, and a timing advance group (TAG) identification of each cell.

### Claim 15

A master enhanced NodeB (MeNB), the MeNB comprising:
a transceiver configured to transmit a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message to a user equipment (UE),
wherein the RRC message comprises a dedicated random access resources configuration for the UE to perform random access to a cell associated with a Secondary enhanced NodeB (SeNB) for a purpose of an addition of the SeNB, and an identification of the cell to which the random access is to be performed;
a controller coupled to the transceiver, the controller configured to:
receive the dedicated random access resources from at least one of the SeNB and a network node;
wherein the MeNB is an eNB which the UE connects to initially and which acts as mobility anchor,
wherein the SeNB is an eNB providing additional radio resources for the UE, which is not the Master eNB,
wherein the dedicated random access resource configuration includes random access preamble and physical random access channel transmission occasion.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The MeNB of claim 15, wherein the RRC message comprises the identification of the cell to which the random access is to be performed, and wherein lower layers of the UE are configured to add the cell.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The MeNB of claim 16, wherein a controller of the UE is configured to configure the lower layers to consider the added cell to be in activated state, prior to performing the random access.

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

The MeNB of claim 15, wherein the cell to which the random access is to be performed can be a primary cell (PCell) associated with the SeNB.

### Claim 19 (depends on 15)

The MeNB of claim 15, the transceiver is configured to at least one of:
receive a signal of success from the UE in response to a successful random access to the cell and the addition of the SeNB;
receive a signal the failure from the UE in response to a failure of the random access to the cell;
determine if the cell to which the random access is performed is previously added in response to the event of the failed random access; and
release the cell in response to the cell being previously added.

### Claim 20 (depends on 15)

The MeNB of claim 15, wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify the one or more cells associated with the MeNB and the one or more cells associated with the SeNB based on at least one of an indication of an eNB that a cell is associated with, a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) of each cell and a timing advance group (TAG) identification of each cell.